This high-speed Arduino pen plotter creates drawings in mere minutes

Pen plotting tasks are in every single place these days, with the overwhelming majority utilizing a few stepper motors for shifting the writing utensil and a servo to lift or decrease it. However they’re fairly sluggish as a result of lack of inflexible meeting and since the servo motor takes round a second to maneuver the pen. This downside is what drove YouTuber IV Tasks to create a really novel design that swaps out the servo for an additional stepper motor and drastically will increase drawing pace.

Similar to most different pen plotters, the X-axis is pushed by a NEMA17 stepper motor with a timing belt hooked up to the central pen carriage. Nonetheless, the Y-axis takes a distinct method by counting on a pair of rollers which are coated in 120-grit sanding bands, which assist to seize the paper securely and transfer it each time the stepper motor rotates the drive wheel. This helps to attenuate slipping in comparison with rubber rollers and is way quicker than a belt-driven design.

Maybe probably the most fascinating facet of this plotter is the dearth of a servo motor for lifting the pen throughout journey actions. On the prime sits another NEMA17 stepper that spins upwards or downwards to elevate a paddle which, in flip, raises the pen off the paper. Controlling the three motors is an Arduino Uno operating the GRBL firmware that receives G-code and transforms it into bodily actions.

You may watch IV Tasks’ video to beneath see the design in additional element.